Hyderabad: Accusing caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) of ‘going back’ on his promise of providing 12 per cent reservation for Muslims in jobs and education, Telangana Congress Chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy Sunday said “the time has come to teach him a lesson.”
Addressing a meeting here, Reddy claimed that Rao was never serious about providing 12 per cent quota to Muslims and therefore dragged the issue for four-and-a-half years on one pretext or the other.
“The BJP government (at the Centre) had rejected the Bill, which was meant to enhance the Muslim quota from 4 per cent to 12 per cent in February this year, and refused to send it to the President for his assent. TRS Government neither held any protest against the BJP government nor approached the Supreme Court against the rejection,” he alleged.
The Telangana legislature had on 16 April last year passed a bill, raising the reservation for backward Muslims and Scheduled Tribes in government jobs and educational institutions. Listing out other “failures” of TRS government, the TPCC President alleged that not even 50 per cent of the allocated budget was spent on minorities’ welfare.
He also claimed that only Rs 3,000 crore were spent during the last four-and-a-half years on minorities’ welfare which was not even 0.5 per cent of Rs 6.75 lakh crore, the total budget of Telangana.
Reddy promised that if voted to power in next elections, the Congress would introduce a Sub-Plan for minorities and earmark about 12 per cent of total budget for their welfare. Reiterating that voting for TRS or AIMIM amounted to electing BJP, he said, “Only Congress has the strength and will to defeat Prime Minister Modi and BJP at the Centre.”
“The security and welfare of minorities can be ensured only if Rahul Gandhi becomes the next Prime Minister,” he added. Reddy also slammed the TRS government for not filing an appeal against the NIA court’s verdict in the Mecca Masjid blast case wherein all accused were acquitted.